"Professor are you sure you are okay with me training here?" I ask following along behind Professor Elm who is slaloming through piles of books and packed desks.
"Of course! You've got four weeks till the tournament starts, it would be a joy to have you here. It would be helpful for our research too" He says opening the back door to his large grounds
I smile and walk through out onto the open field, the lakes spread out to the west and the grasslands are of to the east. There is a large forest area to the back of the grounds with some rocky peaks protruding from behind the treetops.
"How many trainers Pokemon do you house here Professor?" I question
"Oh well, last time I checked it was probably up to 800, back when Ryan was travelling, we used to have one species from all the five major regions excluding legendaries he had travelled too; Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Alola and Sinnoh. As you can imagine things were very full here so in the end we had them moved to the sanctuary based at the foot of Mount Silver that Ms Daisy is involved with. Her and Ryan are quite the collectors when they want to be. Now we just house mainly trainers Pokemon, Ethan has his Pokemon housed here as well as Misha the contest star from Cherrygrove. We as you know also house Ryan's Pokemon but they are in and out quite a lot between Ryan's training regime and battling in Tom Battle Facility"
"Oh yeah, I was wondering would you happen to know how I can arrange my Pokemon to be signed up to that?" I say following along behind him
"I can arrange that, we will have to manage their workload, your reserves have been hard at work while they've been here. Ryans team have been working them hard"
"They have?"
"Oh yes! They been including them in their training regimes, it was very tough on them to begin with, while you are an accomplished rookie training with world champion Pokemon must have been a little bit of a culture shock for them"
"Ryan did say they were struggling to begin with but had started to get better"
"Oh but of course, they're not the same level but they are all keeping up with them now"
"It will be nice to see them all"
We continue down the field towards the forest area, the professor has set up a few tables with various computer equipment on it. He had told me once I asked if I could do some training at the lab that he would put through all my Johto Pokemon through some physical examinations to make sure there in the best shape they can be. At one of the desk sits a young man with black bushy hair and thick set blue glasses, he has his head stuffed into various screens on his desk while an Electrike sleeps soundly on the table. Meanwhile behind him is a young lady with vibrant blonde hair, she has a few hair clips in in the shape of Butterfree and Venomoth, to her side a Vivillon flutters looking slightly concerned
"Mikel have you seen where we put IV measurer?" She question digging through some bags
"Uh have you tried next to the EV measurer?" He questions
"Well that would make sense but its not there, Vivi can you check on the desks for it" She asks her Vivillon which nods before hovering away
"Mikel, Chelsea this is Dustin" Elm says after clearing his throat
They both look over slightly blurry eyed
"Uh hello its nice to meet you both"
"Huh, I thought he'd be taller" Mikel says before returning to his devices.
Chelsea rolls her eyes before moving towards us
"Nice too meet you, ignore him, he was up all night tinkering with some kind of tech" She says
Seeing her upfront she has bright blue eyes and a kind face
"It my pleasure, are you one of the Professors assistants?"
"You bet! Myself and Mikel have been lab assistants for nearly 5 years now, we both studied at the University of Mauville. I'm from Verdenturf while Mikel is from Slateport. We got assigned to the Professor in our senior year as a work placement and well we never left" She explains
"Oh so you're from Hoenn, that explains the Electrike" I say with a laugh
"He is Mikel partner from little" She says as Vivillon hovers over holding a small device
"Oh you found it, thank you Vivi" she says taking the device from it
"This is my partner Pokemon Vivillon, she got lost back in Kalos and ended up on a shipping boat to Mauville. I found her while doing some nature drawings in the wild and ended up catching her"
"Well its nice to meet you too" I say waving to Vivillon
"Right then seeing as we are all now present shall we get started" Elm says clapping his hands together before he gestures me to send my Pokemon out.
I grab all my Pokeballs and throw them up sending the whole team out, Togetic is instantly by me before landing on my shoulder while the rest of the team stretch out.
"Oh hello little cutie" Chelsea says waving her hand to Togetic who coos back happily
The three of them spend the next hour or so looking over every team member, they take specially consideration and time when looking at Meganium, Typholsion and Feraligatr as they were the ones who were gifted to me as part of the research. Professor Elm is incredibly knowledgeable, he spends a lot of the time explaining to me about what each measurement is regarding, tips of heath and diet benefits each of my team need. He even says that once Sudowoodo is housed at the lab they can look into getting some of it burn scars looked at and heal them. Chelsea is very comforting, she explains further that her education was in Pokemon anatomy and medicine, she join the lab as a sort of Nurse but mainly for field and wild injuries. She is again very knowledgeable taking me through how to deal with certain situations, what to do if certain things happens, she also showed me some of her drawing she had done in the past and they were incredibly detailed. Mikel was certainly the quietest and most distant, he spent most of the time fine tuning all the instruments however he was very kind when regarding the Pokemon reservations about the devices, he used some on Electrike before when Sudowoodo and Lanturn were slightly sceptical and he seemed adept at putting them at ease.
"Right then I suppose the last thing we need for our research project is Dustin view on the three subjects" Elm says before turning to me
"What do you mean? I question
"Well you've spent the most time with the three of them, raised them all to be fine battlers. Do you see any discernible difference in the attitudes between the three of them?"
I take stock on the question before looking out over to my team of Pokemon, they are all sat together eating away at the food provided. When I had first got them as Chikorita, Cyndaquil and Totodile they all had different personality traits. Chikorita was a little headstrong and stubborn and only wanted to bathe in the sun, Totodile was full of energy and always on the go while lastly Cyndaquil was a little more reserved and shyer. In some aspects they still had these traits, it was still difficult to get Meganium to always do exactly what I wanted her to do and if she found a good spot to sunbathe then there was no way she was doing any training that day. Feraligatr was still a little rambaceous, he was the least aware of his size to as he would still try to jump into me when he had won a battle. Typhlosion had perhaps changed the most, coming out of his shell and being a lot more social however I can still see the times when he is ready to spend some time on his own or be with just Togetic, we had done a lot of one on one training for this reason as it seemed to be the most beneficial for him
"Uh well I wouldn't say any of them are weaker than the other, they all have their quirks but you make it work"
Elm smile broadly
"Ryan was correct you were the perfect choice" He says with a smile
"so we haven't been totally truthful in regards to our research project, the idea of our project wasn't to give you three different Pokemon at different levels of potential. All three of your starter Pokemon were the lowest potential Pokemon from their breeding group, our research was to see what was more important, a good trainer or high potential Pokemon. I think you've shown that, on the surface, the care and nurturing of a good trainer outweighs the potential of the Pokemon. Which makes sense when you think of it, a Pokemon can have all the potential in the world but only a good trainer can bring it out"
"Well I was just doing my best" I say before being interrupted
"VENU!"
I turn to see charging down from the lab is my whole Kanto team; Jolteon and Dodrio lead the way charging as fast as the can. Starmie, Ninetales and Venusaur are close behind while Poliwrath carries Blastoise bringing up the rear
"Hey guy!" I shout running to meet them
I'm tackled forcefully to the ground by Jolteon who begins to lick my face while Dodrio squawks in excitement while the rest of the guys catch up
"Its good to see you too Jolt" I say through laughs before managing to calm him down
"Its great to see you all again, I've missed you" I say as they surround me, my gaze settles on Blastoise who even though they weren't running is panting heavily
"You okay bud?" I quest putting my hand on it
"Blastoise has been training with Ryan Golisopod today, probably why its tuckered out" Mikel shouts across
"Oh I see, I've heard you've all been training really hard, thank you for all your hard work". I know you can't battle in the Johto Championships but if the other guys do well and we make it to the Junior World Championships I will need all of your guys help"
They all call back in appreciation.
"I need your help too with something else but first I want you guys to meet my other team" I say waving them to follow
My Johto team are currently burrowing their way through heaps of food that have been provided by the professor
"Everyone this is my Kanto team" I say happily
The johto team turn to look and look a little uneasy to begin with. Typholsion flares his fire up before pulling himself to his feet, he wanders toward the myself and the group
"Hey no wait" I start before a vine comes across me from Venusaur
"Saur" It calls in a low tone before walking forward
The two meet and stare each other down for a few seconds before the same vine blocking me comes out and is held out to Typholsion to take. He smiles wide and takes it shaking it. Venusaur then beckons the rest of the team to follow and introduce themselves which they do. Poliwhirl set Blatoise down who is openly salivating at the food, Togetic coddles a few berries and carries them up for the water type to each which he accepts gratefully. The team all then begin to intermingle leaving me next to Venusaur who watches on happily
"Thanks Saur, I thought that was going to fight for a minute then" I say patting her head
"Saur" She calls back happily
"They're really strong Saur, I think we might have a chance of making the championships"
Elm comes and speaks with me and advises we are welcome to stay out on the ground as long as we like and hand me a key to the room I would be staying in. I thank him for everything and he head off with Chelsea and Mikel. I take a seat next to Meganium who begins to interact with Venusaur. They both have a lot of thing in common so it is a natural fit. I give them a little while to get acquainted with each, Feraligatr and Poliwrath hit it off straight away while Ninetails and Lapras are an unlikely duo. I stand up after a while and clear my throat
"So guys, we have four weeks until the Johto Championships and well, if we do well then we could make it to the junior world championship. We probably have to win the whole thing but I know we have the potential so, I want us all to train together as a team. If all goes well then we can all compete together in the World Championships"
They all look at me before calling out in agreement
"Okay then, we have three weeks and a lot of work to do, we'll get started up in the morning"
